> React is using Virtual DOM, which is not free. It is fast, but it is not free.

Of course, that's what I meant- maybe it wasn't clear. React can't be faster than vanilla js, it's written in vanilla js after all.

The whole virtual dom's purpose is to calculate the smallest possible update when you don't know (and don't care) what exactly has changed in your view. But that calculation of course has a cost. And if you know very well what changed and where, like in the case of the GP, nothing can be faster than changing it directly.